What We Need In Customer Service

We all are aware of what a customer service representative of an organization should do to keep the organization in the good books of the customer but the biggest gap is in the form of:

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  Customer Awareness. Most often, the customer (be it internal or external) is not aware of the products and services and their usage leading to nightmarish experiences of the Customer Service workforce of an organization. At times, the organizations form their functional strategies based on this gap, but this only leads to the added expenditure in revamping and elaborating their Customer Care Services which becomes a lost cause with the front line executives becoming the spent force, as they are always in the line of fire juggling between the company policies and the customers, who always feel they have been cheated by the organization. 
  
  

  
  

          This requires the organization to take the initiative to make the customer aware of the benefits of the organizations products and services considering the unique requirements of the customers. This calls for consumer education initiative (Educating the customer of how to use the products and services and its entailing benefits.) This proactive effort will definitely go a long way to have a happy customer service force and customer too.

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  Catch Them Young it may sound more like a far cry but it is a fact that most of us are not aware of our social responsibilities and social systems and this unawareness always makes us feel insecure eventually making us prone to the fear of being misguided or misled through wrong information. This needs holistic approach of making the consumer aware of his or her social benefits and responsibilities so that when availing any products or services of an organization, is fully aware of what he or she needs and what information to seek from the organization helping him to fulfill his requirements. 
• That Extra Mile we are all aware of who is an irate or angry customer and the objective of the Customer Care Department is to keep such a customer at bay and should be treated like a pariah. We also are aware of the fact we should not have angry and irritable Customer Care Executive. What we all ignore is, why do they exist. Attend to the symptoms and not the cause. This is where we need to walk that extra mile to make the customer as well as the Customer Care Executive (The facade of the organization) to make them aware of their responsibilities and the consequential benefit to both conscientious customer as well as the organization. This is no philosophy and not rocket science either. It is merely the initiative of the organization as microcosm of the society at large to proactively share knowledge and information thus educating the segment of the society it is catering to. Subsequently, completing its fair share of responsibilities to the society at large.
• Shared Identity. the relationship with the customer is not merely of give and take but of perpetuation hence the term customer "relationship" and customer "service". We usually refer to the term "Word-of-Mouth" and most of the business enterprises believe that customer's reference is vital to perpetuation of business and beneficial relationship with the customer leads to more avenues for business. This is possible when the customer feels that he or is valuable part of the organization's clientele and this is possible only when a genuine relationship of shared identity is developed with the customer. What we mean by "shared identity" is that both the customer as well as the organization are able to identify with each other and is able to synthesize the progress to be mutually sustainable. This is the key to success of the business enterprise.

This to a great extent can make the organization benefit from the customer through a wise and knowledgeable customer.

  

Writing Using Idioms with Numbers

We use idioms to speak our mind with wit and and a dash of humour to accentuate the message we intend to convey. So, let us try to use some of the idioms that use numbers in them to convey our message with peppered humour:

Have one over eight:     Someone who is tipsy due to drinking too much alcohol
At the Eleventh Hour:    Just at the final moment
Five o'clock shadow:    Someone who has not shaved and stubles appear on his face
Have Forty Winks:          Take a quick nap (sleep or rest for a short while.)

Now let us try to form a sentence using the idioms we have learnt the meaning of and listed them above.

Waiting for his project to complete successfully, Will had one over eight at the eleventh hour, so decided to have forty winks only to find five o'clock shadowing his face. 

[This means: While Will was waiting for his project to complete successfully, at the final moment he was was influenced by the alcaholic drink he had and decided to take a short nap only to find that he had slept long enough to grow beard on his face.]
So, are we ready for some more after the warm up session?

Let us take a few more idioms:

A chance in a million:           Rare and much awaited opportunity
Feel like a million dollar:      Feel extremely good
Never in a million years:     That which does not happen at all
Nine day wonder:                  Excitement lasting for a short time

For Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, it was a chance in a million making him feel like a million dollar, a nine day wonder that never had happened in a million years.

[This means: Astronaut Neil Armsrton, the first man to land on the moon, this was a rare opportunity he much waited for he was proud of his achievement, though it was an excitement of short visit that has not happened at all.]

Let us now try to form a sentence using some of the eight idioms listed above:

At the eleventh hour the hare had forty winks making his excitement a nine day wonder giving the tortoise a chance in a million to feel like a million dollar.  

Refer to the meaning of the idioms to see what the sentence means.

Shall we have you use the following idioms to form a sentence or two:

A drop in a bucket:                                  a small part of a bigger whole(entity).                          
A penny saved is a penny earned:     saving money little by little
A picture paints a thousand words:   image impresses more than verbal description
A dime a dozen:                                       Anything that is in common

Happy time making sentence by combining one or more of the idioms to discover your creative potential!

An Experience of Cross Culture Blending

I was once asked, "Where are you from" to which I replied, "My Father is from West Bengal, Mother hails from Punjab. my birth place is Orissa and have lived in most of the major cities of India. I hope I have replied to your question."

As a resident of Bangalore, I preferred and also found the Public Bus service to be within my means to travel length and breadth of the city. As a commuter, I was impressed by the bonhomie the women commuters shared among themselves. A woman would leave her seat for an elderly woman and students, who would be seated would offer to hold the heavy bags of their friends who had to travel, stnading in the vehicle.

In Calcutta, I found the gents eagerly offer their seats to the women fellow travelers while the bus conductors helped the women to easily board and alight the bus.

My Mumbai experience is also quite impresseive as I found the commuters stand in a queue and wait for the bus. They even board the bus in a queue. It is a remarkable sense of discipline and self restraint.

The migratory birds like me, who live in various cities and experience unique cultural ethos, can help in blending the myriad hues of culture and enable the homogeniety of myriad cosmopolitan hues thus making India a truly Nationally Integrated country making our lives worht living in the country we call our Mother land

Anukaran kaa Anusaran (Emulate to Follow)

पथ पर राही ने पायी नहीं  ठौर
चलता रहा, चलता रहा
पथ पर अडिग निरंतर.
पथ पर रही ने पाई नहीं ठौर
बढ़ता रहा, बढ़ता रहा
वह मंजिल की ओर.
पथ पर रही ने पायी नहीं ठौर
समझता रहा, समझता रहा
वह इस सफ़र का दौर
पथ पर रही ने पाई नहीं ठौर
निरंतर, तत्पर
वह बढ़ता रहा अपनी मंजिल की ओर.
पथ ने कहा, 'मैं हूँ बहुत कठिन, यह तुमने है जाना
तुम हो तत्पर, यह मैने  है माना.
क्या है तुम्हारा उद्देश्य पर यह तुम मुझे बताना.
राही ने मुस्कुराकर कहा पथ से, "मेरा मकसद है जीवन,
पथ है माध्यम जीवन के निरंतर क्षण भंगुर से आगे बढने  का
पथ है माध्यम चिरंतन विचरण सुघड़ भावनायों का
पथ है माध्यम आत्म मंथन कर जीवनकाल चक्र से मुक्त होने का.
पथ, तुम हो आशा, प्रथ्याषा हीन
यही है मैने जाना.
मैं राही एक अंश तुम्हारा, येही है मैने माना.
तुम्हारी प्रेरणा से प्ररित होकर बढ़ रहा हूँ निज जीवन मैं
तुम्हारा अनुराकर्ण कर कर रहा हूँ अनुसरण जीवन का."

Top of the House 100

There once lived a monk in a monastery in the Alps with only a St. Bernard as his companion. The dog also did the job of rescuing the travelers stranded in snow storm or buried in snow. The monk called him “GOD”. When GOD would rush to the monk with message to help any poor soul in misery in the Alps, the monk would quickly follow him and get the destitute to the cozy confines of the monastery.



One cold, dark morning, when snow blizzard was raging outside the monastery, GOD rushed to the monk and tugged at his habit. The monk, who was praying at the alter immediately got up and rushed after GOD who led him to the spot where a weary traveler lay unconscious, buried under thick pile of snow. GOD immediately began digging the snow in a frantic gesture to help the monk. To revive the man, the monk poured a few drops of brandy in the traveler’s mouth, wrapped him in a thick blanket and brought him to the monastery where he nursed him back to health.


While the traveler was recuperating in the monastery from his rough encounter with the fury of the Alps, he always found the monk ask GOD to go to the top of the house and have his “Hundred”. Curious to know what it meant he asked the monk, “Father, you often ask the dog to go to the top of the house to have his ‘Hundred’, what does it mean?”


The monk smiled at the traveler and said, “Son, the creature you call dog is a God Send for weary travelers like you who fall prey to the vagaries of Nature and that is why I call him GOD. I ask him to go to the top of the house to have his Hundred is to go out of the monastery to see if anyone needs our help.


(Foot note: The Numbers or creatures don’t always mean their face value, they also mean the purpose they serve in the grand design called the world at large we live in.)

Once upon a time, there lived an old baker named Barkis, who hardly had any customers visiting his bakery that he almost lost hope of selling the bread loaves he used to bake every day to sell.



One winter morning, a stranger walked into his bakery and said, “Barkis, I am new to this village and I have no family too, but I still want you to bake me a dozen loaves of bread every morning and I shall buy them from you.”


Happy with a sudden turn in fate, Barkis set about baking a dozen loaves of bread and completed his work by daybreak.


True to his words, the stranger visited the bakery in the morning and asked Barkis for his ware.


Barkis eagerly picked up the wicker basket he had packed and kept for the stranger and handed it over to him.


The stranger quietly took the basket and opened each of the brown paper packet to check the bread loaf. After having checked all the loaves he produced one to Barkis and said,” Barkis, this loaf of bread is partly burnt, can you replace it with a fresh loaf tomorrow with the dozen loaves you will deliver to me for tomorrow?”


Quite amazed at how he could overlook the burnt loaf, Barkis quietly took the loaf of bread from the stranger and agreed to replace it with a fresh loaf the following day.


The following day too, the stranger pointed out to a partly burnt loaf of bread and requested Barkis to replace it with the fresh loaf the next morning and this continued till such time that it became habitual for Barkis to bake thirteen loaves of bread instead of twelve for the stranger.


One day, the stranger visited Barkis’ bakery with his friend who requested Barkis too, to bake a dozen loaves of bread each day.


Habitually, Barkis baked thirteen loaves of bread each for the stranger and his friend and packed their wares in two separate wicker baskets.


Next morning the stranger and his friend visited Barkis’ bakery to collect their loaves of bread and the stranger’s friend was the first to open the basket to check the loaves. After having seen them, he returned one loaf to Barkis and said, “Friend, I had ordered for twelve loaves but you have given me thirteen.”


Barkis smiled and replied “So, after all, no more burnt loaf of bread.”


So friends, to be habitually proactive is what Baker’s dozen means, to avoid any eventualities.




(Foot Note: Especially quality compliance.)

Hiring People to Fail?

I was amazed to find that a friend of mine used to hire people to amuse himself on their shortcomings and follies. He would make them feel miserable by pointing out their mistakes in front of others and then recount the mistakes to his friends and have a good laugh at the expense of his office staff.

Even more intriguing was a recruitment firm hiring recruitment executives every month only to fire them within a span of three months on the grounds of poor performance. It is quite inevitable that very soon the firm closed shop.

Even came across an organization that would place new hires in all its questionable projects and then retain only a fourth of them, while asking the rest to quit because of the closure of the projects they were executing.

A company providing home based documentation job work would send test files to job aspirants for transcription and documentation and would report to the examinees that they had failed the test and encourage them to take the test again on a different test file, thus getting its documentation work done for free from the unsuspecting examinees.

Such unscrupulous means of meeting short term objectives do not help in setting up a credibly successful organization too.

Everyone is aware of the time and resource an organization has to expend to hire new hands for its functions. This makes it all the more important for the organization to ensure longevity of the new hires in the organization so that it can cut down on the hiring and attrition cost. This is only possible when:

• The functional objective aka the job description of the new hire is in tune with the operational vision and mission of the organization.
• The eligibility criteria (Knowledge, skill and experience) is well defined in terms of the job description of the portfolio for which the organization intends to hire a new hand.
• The induction process to help the new hire to align completely with the vision and work culture of the organization along with the functional objective of the portfolio he/she has to manage in the organization.
• Through regular mentor support, enable the new hire to align his/her career objective with the functional objective of the organization.
• Organization should have open door policy at all levels of its functional hierarchy so that a positive work environment can encourage free exchange of views, ideas and feedback that can encourage an individual to improve upon his or her performance to mutual benefit as this well help the organization to remain in tune with the changing trends in the market it is catering to.
• Organization should encourage integrity, honesty, an inquiring mind along with pragmatism in its work ethos in order to encourage its employees to remain in tune with changing market trends, change in technology to maintain the good will the organization has created for itself in the market.

• Organization should also encourage enhancement of knowledge and skill so that an employee can improve his or her performance. Should also encourage one-on-one coaching and mentoring to ensure success of succession planning from its shop floor level up to the summit of its functional hierarchy.

Therefore, it is time for every organization to ponder over its hiring policies and its work ethos to see how it is failing to achieve its functional vision and mission with the failure of each employee it hires to achieve its functional objective.